Friday was movie night for the Lipscomb Lady Bisons basketball team in Jacksonville, Fla.

Both coaches and players needed some time to find an escape from thoughts of the basketball court for a couple of hours.

Players and coaches were going their separate ways in picking films to see with coach Frank Bennett and assistant coach Billy Snell choosing to see “True Grit”. The title is a fitting one as the Lady Bisons have to find a way to play with more grit in the final stretch of the regular season.

They face Jacksonville Saturday at noon at Swisher Gym in an Atlantic Sun game. The Lady Bisons haven’t had much luck with teams from Florida, losing 58-46 Thursday night at North Florida, 78-53 to Stetson Monday night at Allen Arena and 62-51 Saturday against Florida Gulf Coast.

Jacksonville stopped its consecutive losses at two games with a 68-57 win over Belmont Thursday night.

The Lady Bisons are 8-15 overall. 5-9 in the A-Sun. Jacksonville is 10-11, 5-7 in the conference. The Lady Bisons beat Jacksonville 74-69 at Allen Arena Jan. 8.

Bennett is quick to point out that his team showed some grit in the second half of the North Florida game.

“We had a really good practice Friday morning which I was glad of,” Bennett said. “We had a strong comeback against North Florida.”

After being down 32-19 a the half the Lady Bisons outscored North Florida 27-26.

“We played a really good second half and got the lead down to six,” Bennett said. “We showed some fight in coming back.”

One area where the Lady Bisons need to improve is the way they start both games and second halves.

“We are building too big of a hole,” Bennett said. “Our tempo starting games and halves as far as moving the basketball and making cuts is not where we need it to be to be effective. We have to be in a crisis mode to get what we need on that sometimes.”

The Lady Bisons are led by guard Jenna Bartsokas with 15.5 points per game, fourth best in the Atlantic Sun. Guard Anna Bowers is 10th in the conference overall with 13.6 points. Center Brittany Duerk leads the Lady Bisons in rebounding with 5.7 per game.

Jacksonville is paced by Taneskei Richardson with 11 points per game. She also leads with 9.8 rebounds per game, second best in the conference overall.

Also in double figures are Lynsey Paschal with 10.4 points per game, Gigi Thomas with 10.3 and Crystal Bell with 10.2. Paschal is averaging 7.5 rebounds per game.

The Lady Bisons shot 30 percent from the field against North Florida. Bennett is happy with the quality of the shots his players are taking.

“In the first half we didn’t shoot threes very well,” Bennett said. “In the second half we had a better percentage but we didn’t take a lot of shots.

“We are getting good shots in the post. We just have to finish those.”

The Lady Bisons will get an extended rest period. They will not return to action until Feb. 14 when they visit Campbell.